Wanting
by Jolteon Master
Summary: Michael, a closeted homosexual, finds himself in Lima, Ohio. Life seems to keep shoving him into some of the cutest boys in the school, and into the glee club. Will he find love or will he be crushed like a stage floor in the performance of STOMP!
1. Chapter 1

**Hey there readers! Now I know that this isn't the kind of stories I usually write, and anyone who has read my stories before may get mad at me for not completing my others first. But I had this idea on my mind that I just couldn't let go. This story does contain MM (male on male) sex and romance. If you're uncomfortable with this subject in any way please leave now. **

**I got most of this idea after reading Wishful Thinking by qpritchie 1, great story by the way, read it. For me this story is going to be my first actually sad and serious story, please enjoy.**

As soon as I stepped out of the car I knew I was not going to like this place. Lima, Ohio, it reeked of small town everything. Homophobia, racism, sexism, almost everything that most of the outside world had excepted was still lurking here in this tiny town like an evil shadow waiting in quiet. I flicked my head to get the hair out of my eyes. I looked around at my new neighborhood. It was quiet, kind of cute, and very clean. It reminded my of something you would see in a horror movie. Quiet neighborhood with a terrible secret. Heh, well know there is going to be a secret. I'm gay, I've known that for a few years now, only person I have told is my social worker, Karen. I made her promise not to tell any of my foster families. That's another thing, my parents were killed when I was about 12. I didn't even have the chance to tell them who I really was. It killed me everyday, I had known a year before that, my parents were very accepting people, they even had a few gay friends, but I had never had the guts to tell them. Only Karen knew and she never made a big deal of it.

I turned back around towards the house I was going to live in, at least until this family got fed up with me. That's how it always was, I move in they're all happy and nice, then they quickly get irritated with me somehow and decide to give me back to the agency. Karen is the only person I would call a friend. She knew me and understood me, she always comforted me when a family kicked me out. I had not told any of those families about my sexuality, I didn't want to give them another reason to kick me out. I know that none of them could have figured it out by themselves, I was very careful and no one could tell I was gay except for a slight lisp I had. It wasn't a total lisp like turning s's into th's I just tended to hold an s out longer than normal. Hardly anyone noticed it though, except for one little girl in family 3, she hated it and annoyed me about for the entire time I was there, I garauntee she was why I was asked to leave that family.

The house I was looking at was yellow, it had two floors, and a nice little picket fence around it. Karen hadn't told me much about this family, only that they had two children, the son was in college and the daughter was around my age. The dad was a dentist and the mom was a hygenist. Karen stepped out of the car behind me and walked around to me.

"So, Tyler, what do you think?" Her tall, slender frame made her look strong and confident, which she was.

"I don't know." She frowned, she knew that tone.

"Listen, we'll give it a week and if you're really not happy I'll start looking for a new family. But for now this is as far as I could get you from the Domingas." I shuddered the Domingas were the last family I had had. They were rich and the kids had hated me from the start. They had made my entire stay miserable. I wished I could have just left Ohio altogether; but Karen forced me to stay within the state.

I nodded and got my single bag from the car, when you're constantly being moved around you need to know how to travel light. Karen was already waiting at the front door for me. She knocked on the door and gave my shoulder a quick squeeze.

"Don't worry I'm sure you'll love the Jones'." The door abruptly swung open to reveal a large African-American man. I was surprised, I had never been put with a black family before, I'd had a Mexican, Puerto Rican, and even Jewish families but never an African-American one. The mas ushered gave Karen and I a strong but gentle handshake.

"Hi I'm Karen Doyle, and you must be James." He smiled and nodded.

"Let me introduce you to the rest of the family." I then noticed three girls lined up against their staircase. The first was a large black woman who was nearly splitting her face she was smiling so hard. The girl next to her looked almost exactly like her mother. Next to her was a white, blonde girl who would have been skinny if it weren't for her obvious pregnancy. The gossip in me wanted to ask so many questions, but the girl seemed to be getting a little angry with my staring, I bit my tongue and looked back at the man.

"This is my wife Michelle. My daughter Mercedes, and her friend Quinn." I smiled politely and waved at them. The girls waved back and smiled but Mrs. Jones tackled me with a hug. Karen smiled.

"Michael, I'll see you next week, try to make some friends." I nodded and she quickly left. Karen believed in the cliche quick and painless. I stood there awkwardly as Mr. Jones closed the door. Mrs. Jones smiled warmly and gave me another hug.

"Girls, why don't you go ahead and show Michael his room?"

"Sure momma, come on Michael." I fell into line behind Quinn with Mercedes leading. Quinn was struggling with her "extra burden" and stumbled every few steps. The second floor had three bedrooms with two full bathrooms. My room was across from the bathroom in the hallway, the other was connected to the master bedroom. My room was barren and covered in light blue.

"This was my brother's room before he went to college, then it was Quinn's. But she agreed to share my room for a little bit." She immediately knew she had said something wrong and both girl's eyes widened. Quinn quickly stepped in.

"Michael, she didn't mean it like that. We..." I gave a sad grin.

"Stop. I know, it's ok." They both shared an uncomfortable look.

"Ok, we'll let you settle in." I was left standing there with my one bag. I quietly removed my things and put them in the small dresser. I slid my bag under the bed and just lay on the bed staring at the ceiling. I closed my eyes and reflected on my life. For four years I had been passed from family to family, teenagers were always the hardest to get adopted. That's what Karen told me in a way to comfort me. At least this family seemed nice. The blonde girl was very pretty (hey, I'm gay, not stupid) I wish I knew what her story was. It was only Saturday, I would have a whole week at their school to find out.

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the only good thing I received from the Domingas family, an iPod. It was a nice one too, a touch. Like I said the Domingas were loaded, the iPod was my going away present. They gave their kids two new ferraris. I scrolled down to one of the few songs I had, one of my favorites "Don't Stop Believin'". It never failed to cheer me up. I never understood what the lyrics meant, but the chorus always made me hopeful. About halfway through the song I felt a hand gently shove my shoulder. I opened my eyes to see Mercedes looking at me.

"Hey time to get up, we got dinner ready. Are these the only clothes you have?" I nodded.

"You need to get up with the times then. I'll take you shopping tomorrow, I can introduce you to Kurt. Something tells me you two would hit it off." Kurt, hmm...sounded like a pretty masculine guy. But besides that I was shocked no family had ever offered to take me shopping, certainly not within the first hour of meeting them at least.

"You would do that?" She smiled.

"Yeah, why not? Trust me you _need_ to get a new wardrobe." I smiled. I'll admit my clothes were pretty dull, most were from re-sale stores. She giggled.

"Come on, we gotta go, momma doesn't like for people to be late to dinner. What are you listening to anyway?"

"Oh, I'm sure you probably don't know it that well. It's "Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey."

"Really? We did that song in glee." I'd heard of glee clubs before of course, but I had never actually met someone who was a part of one.

"You're school has a glee club?"

"Yeah, Quinn's in it to, we just started this year, we're called New Directions. We accept anyone who auditions, unfortunately." She had a fleeting look of anger before she smiled at me again. "If you like classic rock maybe you should meet Finn. He's in glee too, he's our school's quarterback." Ok, meeting someone from a glee club was one thing, but hearing of a _jock_ who was in glee club, that was just unheard of. "You should audition, it couldn't hurt." I grinned back at her.

"Thanks, but I don't really sing." She just shrugged it off and took her place at the table. I hadn't even realized we were in the dining room. I sat down between Quinn and Mr. Jones. We said grace and the food was passed around the table.

"Michael, we have plenty of food for you if you want extra, might want to think about it with your skinny body." I blushed and giggled. I knew I wasn't skinny, just tall which happened to stretch most of the fat across my frame.

"Thank you Mrs. Jones." Mr. Jones laughed and thumped me in the back.

"Don't worry, her food won't kill you, most days." She shooed at him and laughed. "Michael, I can't tell you how good it is to have another guy in the house again. I was starting to go a little crazy with all the women running around here talking about fashion, music, and boys." The girls laughed, I chuckled a little. Boy was he going to be in for a surprise. I scolded myself, like I was going to be here long enough to tell them.

Dinner went by smoothly and was actually a lot of fun. True to Mr. Jones' word the girls started talking about fashion. After dinner I gave Mrs. Jones a hand with the dishes. With nothing else to do I took a quick shower and went to bed.

The next day we went to the Catholic Church for mass. I wore my Sunday best, which was just a yellow polo and some rather worn dress pants. During the service I noticed Quinn looking at a couple a few rows away from us. They seemed like nice people, blonde and blue eyes like Quinn. She was looking at them with such sadness I knew they had to be her parents. After the service she and Mercedes were the first two to leave. After church Mercedes decided that we would get lunch at the mall. I changed into a simple pair of jeans and a black t-shirt that I thought looked good on me.

Mercede's car was an old beat-up Volkswagen. I settled into the back seat. The radio was already set to the R&B station and MJ's "ABC" was playing. Mercedes and Quinn really got into the song as we drove to the mall. I was pleasantly surprised by how good they both were, they sent goosebumps up my arms. I couldn't believe Mercedes had even considered asking me to join their glee club. I had no where as much talent as these two, and if the rest of their team was as good as they were...I smiled and lay back in the seat.

When we reached the mall we went directly to the food court to meet Kurt. When we were introduced he simply stood back and analyzed me. After a while he held out his hand.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance."

"Umm...same to you." I gently shook his hand. He turned to Mercedes.

"You were right. But it's a lot worse than I thought. Come ladies we have work to do." Quinn and Mercedes laughed and we all followed him into the nearest clothing department. I hardly did any of the picking of the clothes, they were practically flying above the dressing room door. I had hardly any time to put the clothes on and display them before they were throwing even more clothes at me. At the end of the day I had three new pairs of pants, six shirts, and even a studded bracelet Kurt forced me to try on, and I have to admit I kind of liked. I kept thanking all of them over and over again. But Kurt would hear nothing of it.

"The price is nothing. Every moment in your life is a chance to show everyone who you are, and that is priceless." I had grown to like Kurt a lot over the day, I could see why the girls were such good friends with him. If he was just a little more masculine I would totally date him, you know if I was out of the closet.

"Well it looks as though my job here is done. Good day ladies, and I had better see one of these on you tomorrow, Michael." I laughed and nodded.

"Yes, monsieur." He smiled and left with a big flourish. We waved goodbye and made our own way out to the parking lot.

On the way home Quinn started to laugh and sang loud when "I Say A Little Prayer" started to play. I chuckled and hummed along with the chorus. By the end of the ride home I was quietly singing with both of the girls. Quinn helped me put all of my clothes away.

"Mercedes told me you don't want to try out for glee." I blushed.

"Yeah, sorry."

"It's ok, but I heard you singing in the back." I blushed even harder, I was sure neither of them had heard me.

"I agree with Mercedes, you should at least try. Think about it, goodnight." With that she left me reminiscing over one of the best days I had had in a long time.

**Ok! There you go, hate it or love it just please review it! And anyone reading this for a quick porno, get out and don't come back for a while. Thanks for reading!**


	2. Meeting

**Well so far I have one reviewer, yeah! But instead of letting that pull me down I would like to say thank you to BCook4294 for your gracious review. I'm just going to write this story for fun and enjoy it.**

In the morning I woke up at six and took a quick shower. As I washed I did what most everyone subconsciously does in the shower, I sang. Not too loud, I didn't want to wake anyone up. I stepped out of the shower and dressed in what I thought was the best of the clothing that Kurt and the girls had bought me yesterday. A pair of designer jeans and a dark shirt with random writing all over it, and of course the bracelet.

As I walked out of the bathroom I was a little surprised to see Quinn standing there. She gave me a knowing smile.

"I'm telling you, think about it." I knew what she meant but I just blushed and quickly headed for the stairs.

"You know you're actually pretty cute." I froze, no one had ever told me that before. I looked back only to find the door already shut and hearing her sing some random showtune. I hurried down the stairs to find myself some breakfast.

* * *

We were forced to find a spot nearly in the back of the parking lot at the school. I started thinking that the new clothes were a bad idea. I should have worn something less conspicuous. As soon as I entered the doors kids were pointing and staring at me. I silently gulped and went to the office to receive everything I needed. The Indian principle welcomed me with a rather enthusiastic introduction of McKinley High. He led me to my first period class, Spanish. I was so embarassed as he and the Spanish teacher introduced everyone to me. I kept my head low and sat as far back in the class as possible. I took a seat next to a blonde girl with a cheerleading outfit on. During class she kept looking over at my paper. I finally looked her straight in the eye.

"Can I help you?" She smiled and looked relieved.

"That would be great." Her voice sounded like she was on something.

"Um... I was kidding." She frowned as if she didn't understand and went back to looking at my paper.

"Will you stop that, it's cheating!"

"But it's so hard." I rolled my eyes.

"So ask the teacher."

"You can do that?" I nodded slowly. She immediately raised her hand.

"Mr. Schuester, what's the answer to number 2?" I wanted to bang my head against the table. I was actually surprised to see that nobody seemed even remotely interested in the girl's stupidity. Mr. Schuester sighed and came over to help her. I have to admit, he was pretty damn cute. I wonder what would happen if I raised my hand too...NO, no I would not start a gaydream in the middle of class, ESPECIALLY with the teacher right next to me. He was so patient and sweet as he helped the girl with her translating. I couldn't believe anyone would even waste their time on her.

The bell rang and I realized I had been staring at him helping her for five minutes. Oh my God. I quickly packed up and left the room. I didn't see the girl again until lunch. She was sitting with the other cheerleaders, or Cheerios as I had found out. I found Mercedes and Quinn sitting with Kurt and a couple other kids who I assumed were in glee. One was an Asian goth girl who seemed nice, another was a guy in a wheelchair. I sat beside Quinn and they introduced me to Tina and Artie.

"Nice to meet you." Without missing a beat they waved and went back to their conversation. I quietly ate and listened.

"You guys have any idea what Mr. Schue is going to have us do this week?" Kurt shrugged.

"I'm sure it's going to be something big to prepare us for regionals." They had to be talking about Mr. Schuester, he seemed like a musical person. They talked about glee for the entire lunch period.

* * *

Next period for me was study hall, I got a book from my locker and got ready for an hour of boredom. When I closed my locker door a Jewish girl was standing there with a huge smile on her face, she was pretty but with even worse fashion sense than I had. I nearly jumped out of my skin. She didn't notice, or ignored, my surprise and proceeded to introduce herself.

"Hello, my name is Rachel Berry." She held out her hand and I shook it weakly. Something about this girl was kind of scary. Before I even said anything she pulled out a folder from behind her back and started reading from it out loud.

"Michael David Heart, from Fort Wayne, Indiana." I furrowed my eyebrows and stared down at her.

"How did you know that?" She smiled.

"I always keep a close watch on my competition, even from former opponents."

"Wait, Rachel Berry, I know that name from somewhere." She continued to read from the folder.

"You performed in the Indiana state talent show, second place. Ohio state talent competition, second place. Auditioned for Sound of Music, became understudy for Kurt." I suddenly knew who she was.

"You! You were the girl who beat me out of every single talent show and audition I was ever in. You were the bane of my life for 5 years. You even got the part of Kurt, a male part." She smiled and looked proud of herself.

"The directors saw talent when it was put in front of them." I frowned.

"What do you want?" She closed the folder.

"I want you to be in our glee club." I scoffed at her.

"Apparently you need to do more research, I don't perform anymore." I turned around and walked away.

"Is it because of the car crash?" I froze and I nearly started to cry, but then I got angry. I turned around and walked right back up to her.

"Don't _ever_ mention that again!" I looked into her eyes and glared. She was right. My parents had been driving me to an audition for a stage performance of "The Cat in the Hat" when we hit a patch of ice and flipped over. I managed to come out fine, but they were rushed to the hospital where they died in each other's arms. I had cried for hours and never wanted to leave them. I met Karen at the funeral and started my new life. I always blamed myself for insisting so hard that we go to the audition. I never performed in public again; which was how I lost my first few families. They had wanted a happy kid who sang and acted, but I just didn't have the heart to. I wasn't going to give Rachel the chance to see me cry so I turned and kept walking.

"Or is it because you're gay?" This time I froze and that was it. She walked up in front of me. There was no doubt in her eyes, she knew. My voice came out in a whisper.

"How do you know?"

"Logical reasoning, and I have two gay dads. I have developed an excellent gaydar. Don't worry I won't tell anyone... if you audition for glee." That little...I looked at her straight in the eyes and gave her a good long glare.

"Why me?"

"We need another lead male, our last one left due to...unusual circumstances." A flash of anger and pain was displayed on her face until it was replaced with a smile of evil. "Are you in or not?" We stood there our eyes locked for what seemed like hours.

"Fine." She smiled and acted as thought nothing had happened.

"Great, meet us after school in the auditorium. Have what song you're going to audition with ready." She actually skipped away. I ran to the bathroom. I climbed into a stall and cried through study hall.

* * *

At the three o'clock bell I walked into the auditorium. Mercedes and Quinn were sitting in the second row on either side of Kurt. They looked surprised and happy to see me. I took a seat next to Quinn, I felt most comfortable around her, must be the maternal feeling she had. I looked around the room and saw Artie and Tina sitting next to each other. I noticed three guys sitting together. One was Jewish with a shaved head, his muscles rippled when he moved. The other two were Asian and African-American, both were pretty cute, but not as good looking as the first guy. I mentally shook my head and swallowed the saliva pooling in my mouth. I saw the dumb blonde from first period talking to a Spanish girl, she oozed of self confidence and sex.

Rachel walked on stage with Mr. Schuester and this really tall guy, he was extremely cute in a kind of goofy way. His hair was fixed in just the perfect way to make him even cuter. I was nearly choking on the amount of saliva pouring into my mouth. I turned my gaze on Rachel who was talking to Mr. Schuester. He smiled and finally made her stop.

"Ok Rachel. Alright guys, I want you to give a warm welcome to Michael." Everyone I hadn't already met just gave me a "what are you doing here" look. Finn grinned at me and my heart melted. I meekly grinned back. Mr. Schuester waved me onto the stage.

"Come on Michael, show us what you got." I was shaking all over by the time I was on stage, I hadn't sung in public in four years! I stood in the middle of the stage and looked over at Mr. Schuester. He smiled and patted me on the shoulder. He, Rachel, and Finn sat in the front row. Rachel's eyes were analyzing me like a computer. I ignored her and looked over to the piano player.

"When You Say You Love Me, Josh Groban." He nodded and started playing. As soon as the music started I felt like I was 12 again. I wasn't scared, I was actually happy again. It was just the piano playing but I could hear the violins and other instruments play along. Then I started to sing. I could feel my voice blending and moving with the music, the music pushed it and it pushed the music. I wasn't even there anymore it was just my voice and the music.

The music stopped and I was crying. I felt like my parents were looking down at me and smiling. I was comforted and happy. I crumpled to the ground and was caught by two strong arms, a warmth filled me and I fell into a dreamless sleep.

**Second chapter UP! Review! If you have read this far don't flame! And before you get mad at me for making Rachel seem evil and everything, think about it, her boyfriend just left her for Vocal Adrenaline, she's wanted to be a star since she was born, she has already threatened and blackmailed several people in Glee to win, so don't tell me she wouldn't do it. Thanks for reading!**


	3. Gleeing

**Ok, so I was feeling depressed and decided now would be the perfect time to write a new chapter! I have a new reviewers so I would like to thank qpritchie 1, carcar3, Nick1432, and Charlie-girl23, thanks for your support guys. Now let's read.**

I woke up in my bedroom feeling happier than I had in a long time. I lay there looking around in a dreamy haze; then I looked over at my clock and saw that it was six in the morning! I swung my legs over and picked up the clock. How many hours had I slept? Twelve? Fourteen? I groaned, the audition. I probably completely screwed myself over with the fainting. I started to rub my temples and try to slow my heartbeat. I could always look on the positive side, at least Rachel wouldn't get her way. The door opened behind me and I looked up to see Mercedes standing there.

"You better get moving we have a big day ahead of us." I was confused and she could obviously tell.

"Today is choreography day for glee." I didn't even say anything I just smiled and jumped up to hug her. She smiled and hugged me back. It took me a minute to realize what I was doing. I backed away.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realize."

"Don't worry about it, you deserve it." I was so happy I nearly started to cry again.

"Thank you." She smiled again and closed the door behind her. When she left the actual idea that I had made it into the glee club finally began to sink in. I tried to remember that feeling I had had while I was singing. I couldn't remember it completely, but I remembered the pure joy I had felt and that's all I needed to remember.

* * *

I later found out from Quinn and Mercedes exactly what had happened. I had been singing, which they said had given them goosebumps, which made me blush, and when I reached the bridge I had started to cry. By the final bars I had started to sway and looked like I was going to be sick. When I started to fall Finn had practically jumped onto the stage and caught me in his arms, he had also carried me home. While they were telling me this I was blushing like crazy at how pathetic I must have looked. Plus the image of me being carried in the arms of that cutie-pie, I wanted to bang my head on something.

As soon as I walked in through those double doors it was like I had caught the plague. I thought it had been bad yesterday when I was the new kid, but now nobody wanted to be even near me. I kept getting even weirder looks from people than I had yesterday. Anyone with lockers around me grabbed their books so fast I didn't even have time to hear the locks click. I looked questioningly at Quinn and Mercedes.

"What happened?" Mercedes didn't even try to act surprised by what had happened.

"You're a glee kid now. You're at an even lower status than when you were the new kid."

"But how did everyone find out so fast?"

"I'm thinking it was a combination of Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, and that creep who's always stalking Rachel." She turned her head sharply and glared down the hallway, even with the pregnant belly poking out she still had an aura of power and pure attitude. I followed her gaze and saw one huge afro moving it's way through the crowd.

"Do yourself a favor and don't even look at that guy, he'll think you can get him to Rachel." With that the girls were gone to first period. I made my way to Spanish and lo and behold I was seated next to Ms. Rainbows-for-brains again. After and hour of constantly hunching and moving my paper the bell finally rang. I was halfway out the door before Mr. Schuester called me into his office. I sat down in a chair as he closed the door and leaned against his desk. He looked at me for a few seconds, then he took a deep breath. I braced myself for the worst, I didn't actually make it into glee.

"Michael, are you okay with being in glee?" I hadn't expected this.

"Yeah, of course why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I have it on good word that Rachel had approached you before you auditioned for glee." I froze, what if he knew what she had said, what if the person knew? What if the person was the creepy perv who was infatuated with Rachel?

"Uh, wh...who told you that?" I was nervous, and it was obvious, he was looking at me funny and it just made things worse.

"Brittany did."

"Who?"

"The girl who sits next to you in my class?" SHE had seen us? And she had remembered it?

"Oh, it was nothing Mr. Schuester, Rachel was just giving me a friendly push to join glee." His face told me he didn't buy it.

"Michael, I know that Rachel can be rather overbearing sometimes and..." I stood up before he could finish.

"I'm sorry Mr. Schuester, but I have to get to my next class, it is only my second day here." He was a little surprised and merely nodded to me as I left.

"See you at practice." I was almost running down the hall to try and make it to my next class, all the way I was running what Mr. Schue had said through in my head. Should I tell him? No, I couldn't without telling him my secret. Plus it might get me kicked out of glee and I actually didn't want to leave it, yet. I was going so fast I didn't even notice the tall woman in front of me. I smacked right into her like she was a brick wall, all of my things went flying.

"Woah, watch it there tiger. This is a brand new suit and I don't need it reeking freak." I was angered and insulted at the same time. I scrambled to pick up my things and get out of there.

"Now hold on a minute, you left a mark on my suit, you owe me something." I quickly mumbled something about giving her some money later.

"I don't need money, I'm rolling in it, I need something else." I looked up at her to get a good look at her, I immediately wished I hadn't. She was had blond, roughly cut hair, she had a face with a permanent sneer on it, in short she was terrifying. I sat closing opening my mouth.

"Now I know my beauty can leave many men, and a few women, speechless, but you need to get a hold of yourself, kiddo." I gulped and stood up trying to avoid her gaze.

"I...I'm sorry Ms...?"

"I shouldn't have to tell you the name of the best cheerleading coach in the past 2000 years, the winner of countless national championships, and the star of her very own news segment on channel 13. I can't believe you even have the gall to ask the name of Sue Sylvester." Somewhere in the back of my mind the name ringed a bell; at family number 5 the daughters had both been cheerleaders and they had watched the national cheerleading championship and freaked out over the winning coach. I hadn't cared about it at the time, but I vaguely remember them screaming her name when she had won.

"Come on kid speak-up, what group are you in anyway, I know you're not a Cheerio. So what are you? Geek? Jock? Or are you such a loser you haven't even registered as a dot on the radar of social life in high school?"

"I, um, just joined the glee club." She immediately tensed up and got ten times scarier. She was shaking with intense anger.

"Get...away." I nodded and ran as fast as I could to the class I was now officially late for. All thoughts of my talk with Mr. Schuester were completely wiped from my mind.

* * *

I closed my locker to find Rachel popping out from nowhere right next to me, again.

"Gah! You really need to stop that." She ignored my comment.

"Where are you going?"

"Umm, study hall?"

"As team captain for New Directions, it is my job to make sure every member is given proper singing lessons to ensure our win at regionals." She grabbed my hand and walked us toward the choir room.

"Singing lessons? Rachel, I was in countless talent shows, singing competitions, and musicals when I was a kid."

"Yes, and may I remind you that you lost every single one of the competitions, shows, and roles you auditioned for. I also found that your performance yesterday was rather weak and can not have you fainting on stage during regionals." I frowned and glared at her. She stopped us at the door to the choir room.

"I also still have your little secret handy at any moment." I let go of her hand but stopped glaring.

"To help prepare you for regionals my co-captain has agreed to help me help you." She opened the door and I saw Finn standing behind the piano with some sheet music in his hand. Rachel walked us to the piano across from him and handed me some sheet music. Thoughts of what had happened yesterday were flooding my mind and making me totally nervous. I didn't even look at the name of the song we were going to sing. Rachel started to blab on about our lesson. I looked up at Finn and he gave me another of his cute, goofy grins.

"So I want to give you a crash course on as many different genres as possible to keep you on your toes and to help follow with Mr. Schue's assignment for the week." I suddenly listened and realized I hadn't even found out what the assignment for glee was.

"What was that?" For the first time I heard Finn talk.

"He wants us to be our opposites, try genres that are the opposite of what we usually sing." Should be easy, I thought, it's how I am every day of my life.

"Right, so since you seem to prefer more Josh Groban types of songs I decided to pick a song with a little more tempo." She nodded to the piano man and skipped into the center of the room like it was a stage. The music started to play and I quickly glanced at the sheets to see what we were singing. It was something I would never sing, "Hit the Road Jack". I noticed that Finn was on background vocals and I had been given the lead. Rachel and Finn started to sing the chorus, Rachel was dancing like she was in front of billions of people. Not one to be stood up I followed suit. Show biz was in my blood and I had to get as much into the song as I could. Surprisingly enough Rachel, Finn, and I sounded pretty good together. At the end we were all in a huddle looking at each other. I couldn't help myself, I bursted out laughing. Finn and Rachel laughed also and we all gave each other high-fives.

"Good, meet here again tomorrow." With that Rachel dismissed us and since study hall was the last period for us that day the rest of the club started to walk in. Mr. Schuester walked in once everyone had gathered.

"Ok, guys, it's choreography day so get down here and get ready to move." He did a fancy dance move and everyone giggled at him. He flicked his hand to the band and he led us in the song "One Week". The dance he taught us was crazy and I was about to pass out near the end of it, and I had never had so much fun in my life.

**Man, I didn't think it would take me so long to update, but I did it! Hope you guys enjoy, remember to review!**


	4. Faking

**So, I have had one person asking to see Puck so far...anyone else? Depending on how much you guys review I might decide to couple together the most wanted couple, maybe. But I need your reviews, don't just read and complain about who Michael will or will not end up with, give me your freaking opinion! Anyway thanks to Cody and Charlie for reviewing. Read and Review!**

Instead of waking in a feeling of happiness and content, this morning I woke to sores and a nagging feeling of fatigue. I was still feeling the effects of the choreography workout Mr. Schue had put us through according to Quinn and Mercedes who were completely fine. But I was still happy, strange enough. In fact I was so happy that I decided to wear something a little more flamboyant, a pair of jeans that were a little tighter than I usually wear and a shirt that showed off my body so that it actually looked like I had some abs. I got a few looks from Quinn and Mercedes, luckily they were good looks. I also sang along with Quinn and Mercedes as _they_ sang along with the radio. In the back of my mind I knew that it wouldn't last; I had to remind myself that this was just another foster family, and that I was just going to be moving along to some other town or city to another foster family. Even with that firmly planted in my head I couldn't help myself.

My euphoria didn't last long. As soon as I stepped foot on the pavement I was grabbed by both arms and dragged over to a dumpster where I noticed Kurt was already standing between two masses of muscle. I looked up to my own captors and they were more or less the same. One was a black guy who was extremely intimidating looking. The other was a white kid who just looked like an idiot. I looked at Kurt and he gave me a small nod of reassurance. The two jerks placed me right next to Kurt.

"You know the drill. Explain it to your friend." Kurt just rolled his eyes and proceeded to take off his designer jacket and man-bag, he shoved them into the nearest jock. I wore a satchel which I quickly removed and placed on the ground. Kurt and I were picked up and thrown over into the dumpster, me on top of Kurt.

"Consider this your initiation into William McKinley, loser." They all laughed and left. As soon as they were gone I got off of Kurt as fast as possible. I put back on my satchel as Kurt crawled out, they had thrown his things into the dirt. I helped him pick up the stuff that had gotten thrown out. He mumbled to himself angrily as we walked into the school. Before we stepped inside he stopped and turned to me.

"Listen, you can't let the jocks get to you, the last thing you want to do is feed them. Your reputation is already pretty much ruined by being in glee, you're lucky you missed yearbook pictures." He shivered. "It might be best if you don't hang around with me too often, you don't want people thinking we're dating." He seemed to have gone into some other, sadder, place for a minute but he regained eye contact with me and continued. "This was probably the worst possible day to pick out that outfit, although you do look very good in it." I blushed. "So this is goodbye until glee."

It all happened so fast I hardly caught the door before it closed. I rushed up next to Kurt.

"Hey. If they're gonna talk, we might as well give them something to talk about." I grinned at him and he looked much happier. We talked until the warning bell for first period rang. He waved goodbye and I waved goodbye back as we made our different ways to first period.

When I sat down next to Brittany I had such a good mood I smiled at her. She looked confused and ignored my smile. While we were working she leaned towards me and whispered.

"Do you know what happened to the weird kid that was sitting here yesterday? I think they put him in the mystery meat." I couldn't help but chuckle at her.

"I am that kid. I'm just wearing something else."

"You're pretty hot, wanna make out during study hall?" I was taken aback and looked at her in the eyes to see that she was serious. For once I was thankful for Rachel.

"Sorry I have other things I have to do." She slipped a piece of paper into my pocket.

"Just give me a call if you ever feel like tapping this." I blushed and deliberately stared at my paper with all my concentration for the rest of the period.

* * *

I closed my locker and there she was, Rachel of course. I didn't freak out like usual this time. But I still got mad.

"Rachel, didn't I tell you to not do that?" And as usual she ignored me.

"I need you to be my boyfriend tonight."

"What?"

"I need you to take me on a date to Breadsticks, tonight." I had been in town long enough to know that that was a cheap Italian resturaunt not too far away from the school.

"Why?" She became sullen at that.

"I...we're going there to make my _ex_-boyfriend jealous. It would be beneficial if you took me dressed as you are now." I gave my head a shake.

"Rachel, you know I can't do that, you know that I'm..."

"Gay? Yes, but you can think of it as more of an acting excersize to help you get back to your performing roots. You can do it, or I could have a quick word with Brittany about why you can't have a quick make-out session with her."

"How did you..."

"Know? I was passing the Spanish classroom on my way to talk to Mr. Figgans about how we need better acoustics in the girl's bathroom, and I noticed her place her number in your left pocket." I blushed, I need to get control over that. I could live with her using blackmail to join glee, but to go out with her! Who did she think she was? But I knew I couldn't find a way out of it without my secret being revealed.

"Fine. What time should I pick you up?" She again ignored my glare and the malice in my voice.

"7:15. I live at 146 Manchucket Road." I had no clue where that was, but I could always take my time finding it.

"Fine. What shall we be singing for my lesson today?" She perked up and led the way to the choir room.

"I thought that we would go with Finn's Achille's heel, R&B. I specifically chose "Superstition" by Stevie Wonder." This time I perked up, I was prepared for this from listening to Quinn and Mercedes. Finn was already there when we walked in, he looked nervous about singing some soul. I decided to try and cheer him up.

"Come on Finn, it's just some Stevie Wonder, what's the worst that could happen?" I picked up the sheet music and was glad to see that Finn would be singing more so that I could truly appreciate his voice. When I could hear his voice more it was amazing. His voice was classic rock that blended perfectly with Rachel's and mine. He struggled with the beat and notes here and there, but over-all it was a good performance. Of course Rachel couldn't let that be, she worked him like a dog trying to hit some of the notes perfectly. I felt sorry for the guy. Luckily the bell rang and the rest of the glee club filed in to save Finn. Mr. Schue walked in last, which I found out was usual.

"Alright guys, let's see what you've learned so far. Rachel, would you like to start us off?"

"Unfortunately Mr. Schue, since I have mastered every genre of music known to man, I couldn't find anything to sing that would be appropriate for this project."

"Okay then, anyone else want to start?" I glanced around the room and no one was volunteering.

"Come on, anyone? Puck, why don't you start us off?" It wasn't really a question, more like a statement. I turned and saw the Jewish god standing up with a guitar in hand. It was taking all my power to not gawk at him; as he moved every muscle in his body rippled, it was making me very uncomfortable in a certain area.

"I decided to sing some Country for my genre, the music of the heart." I wanted to roll my eyes, but they were transfixed on him. Quinn who was next to me gave a quick chuckle. He played the first chords of the song and I laughed. He was performing "Bartender Song". As the rest of the club realized what he was singing there were bouts of laughter around the room, some even sang along with the chorus. The laughing helped cover up how much I was staring at the hunk singing in front of me. His voice was similar to Finn's with a more old fashioned tinge to it. I loved it, that's when I realized that I was completely crushing on him. I caught his eyes and I immediately tried to find somewhere else to look. Everyone appluaded him when he finished, even Mr. Schue. Puck nodded his head, smirked, and sat back down. As he sat down I think I saw him, or maybe it was my crush playing eyes on me, wink at me. I tried to pretend that I didn't see anything, but I definitely felt blood rushing up to my cheeks.

Mr. Schue jumped up just in time so that no one noticed me blushing.

"Thank you, Puck. Alright everyone, let's work on our group number."

* * *

Unfortunately 7:15 rolled around and I was walking down the street to Rachel's address after getting directions from Mercedes. When I knocked on the door a tall black man opened the door.

"You must be here to see Rachel." I nodded. He showed me inside and sat me on a sofa. Across from me was another sofa that he sat down on next to a white guy.

"Let's establish some groundrules. One, you treat our little star with total respect. Two, you will bring her back home promptly at 11. Three, you won't break her heart like last her last boyfriend." Rachel walked in just as he was finishing the last rule.

"Dad! I can't believe you were going to tell him about Jesse! That's personal information that only I should be allowed to give out." It was interesting to see her act like a normal teenage girl, kind of, instead of the demanding starlette she usually was.

"Don't worry, Berrypie, we were just warning him to treat you like a lady." They both stood and hugged her.

"Thanks dads. Come on Michael."

When we were outside I got a better look of her, she was wearing a dark blue dress that sparkled in some places as she moved. She had on the slightest touch of make-up and, I had to admit, was very beautiful. We walked in silence all the way to Breadsticks. Rachel made sure that we were seated near to the party room. I gave her a questioning look but she ignored me.

"I recommend the salad, it's the only vegan thing on the menu."

"Thanks, but I'm not vegan." Just to annoy her I ordered the meat special. We sat in an extremely uncomfortable silence. Promptly at 8 a large group walked into through the doors and straight to the party room. Leading the group was a cute guy with hair remarkably like Mr. Schue's and an African-American girl I immediately didn't like. I glanced towards Rachel and noticed her glaring at them. I looked back at them and saw the cute guy and the girl staring at us. I lifted my hand as a small wave and smiled. They didn't smile back. When they were seated in the party room I turned back to Rachel.

"So, that's your ex?" She nodded.

"And is that his new girlfriend?"

"I don't know."

"What happened?" She sighed and told me about how he had joined the club to win her heart and then betrayed all of them. She also told me about how Vocal Adrenaline had egged her and teepeed the choir room. I actually felt sorry for her, she had really given her heart to this guy, and he had thrown it on the ground and stomped on it. I decided I was going to help her get her revenge. The food came and went, we had casual chit-chat. As we stood to leave I leaned towards Rachel.

"Kiss me."

"What?"

"Now!" I grabbed her and kissed her passionately; I didn't enjoy it of course, but her ex didn't need to know that. She was breathless when I let go of her. We both looked at the party room where her ex was staring at us dumbfounded. I gave him a Puck smirk and walked off with an arm around Rachel.

When we got outside we both burst into laughter. Rachel was giddy.

"Did you see the look on his face? Thank you."

"You're welcome, don't expect that ever again though." She smiled.

"Don't flatter yourself, I've had better." I laughed.

"Like who? Afro kid?" She looked disgusted.

"Please, I have much higher standards."

"Right, like dating a gay guy." She smiled again.

"You know it's only 9 o'clock. I know a karaoke bar close by." It was my turn to smile at her now.

"Your on." We laughed and sang with mixed results from the people at the bar. I can't even remember how many songs we sang, or which ones for that matter. We were singing all the way to her house also. I walked her to her door and we thanked each other for such a great night. I half hummed half sang "Chim Chim Cheree" to myself going back to the Jones' home. I truly couldn't remember feeling so happy in my life.

**So sweet. I can't wait for the end, it's a doozy. So excited for the next chapter! R&R everyone!**


	5. Crying

**I know, I know, really long break, I'm sorry I haven't updated in forever! But here you go, have fun. =)**

The day started out as usual, get up, get breakfast, belt out R&B with the girls, and get thrown in a dumpster with Kurt. Even with the dumpster I had never been more content in my life. This was the closest I had ever emotionally been with a family and friends; I usually tried to keep a distance so that the news that I would have to leave wouldn't hurt as much. Then I realized that I was just setting up for even more dissappointement by letting myself get so close. But who knows? Maybe this family will want to keep me a little longer, or even adopt! No, I can't let those hopes exist, they will just cause more heartbreak. I have to crush these dreams and go on with life. If only I hadn't asked them to take me to that audition.

I had this back and forth confrontation all the way to Spanish, and even during the class. Brittany of course didn't notice anything was wrong, but Mr. Schue did. And once again I found myself in his office after class. I had my whole, I'm-fine-don't-worry speech planned out, but before I could even open my mouth Mr. Schuester started talking.

"Before you say anything let me just say that I know what you're going through." I was confused, how could he possibly know what I was thinking.

"Well maybe not exactly, but I've seen that look before. You're wondering if you made the right decision about something, you're scared you might get hurt because of it, and you're just trying to get it out of your mind." I avoided his gaze.

"No offense Mr. Schue, but I think a professional should try and diagnose me." He grinned.

"That's why I asked her here." I turned around in my seat to find a pretty woman with gigantic brown eyes. She stepped towards us with a kind smile.

"Hi Michael, I'm Ms. Pillsbury, the school counselor." My eyes grew wide and I looked back at Mr. Schuester, I couldn't believe he had actually called in the counselor.

"I know this might be embarrassing for you Michael, but trust me, we're in a safe environment." I shook my head, there was no way I was going to say anything about how I was really feeling to a total stranger. I looked down into my lap and felt a hand grip my shoulder.

"Michael, I do know what you're going through, I just went through a divorce. I was confused, lonely, even scared for a while. But I was able to look through it and get out of my funk. You can too." I looked straight up into his eyes with anger being my only emotion.

"You think you know what I'm going through? I'm a foster kid, did you know that? I've been dumped by 53 foster families in the past 4 years, like some used up doll that nobody wants. I've been yelled at, beaten, _literally_ thrown out, and above all, totally ignored. I'm sorry you've been through a divorce, but don't you _dare_ tell me you know what I'm going through when you don't know the first damn thing about me!" Both of the teachers were speechless. I took deep breaths and had adrenaline coursing through my veins like I had just ran a marathon.

Without giving them a chance to speak I grabbed my things and left. I walked with dignity to the hallway, and then broke into a run for the bathroom. I went inside the handicap stall and collapsed. All of my pentup emotions came pouring out. I was crying and trying not to gasp for air, which caused me to get hiccups. I suddenly heard the door to the bathroom open and someone walk in. I realized that I had forgotten to lock the stall door. I tried to be as still as possible and hoped that he wouldn't choose my stall. Then an exceptionally loud hiccup burst from my diaphragm. Before my mind began to register what had just happened the door to my stall opened and Puck walked in. He took one look at me and rolled his eyes.

"Great, another gay kid." I glared at him.

"Shut the hell up, Puck. I'm not gay." He sat down across from me.

"So what's the matter? Dumpster dump got you in the dumps?" He chuckled at his stupid joke, I just rolled my eyes.

"It's nothing, just go. Why would you even care?"

"You know I can actually be a little caring? I'm sick of everyone thinking Finn is the only nice guy in the Glee club."

"You're right, there's Kurt, Artie, Mike, and Matt. I've heard about what you've done. Don't even try the nice guy act, I can see right through it."

"Hey! I may not be the most emotional guy in this school, but I can be nice."

"What girl knows you're in here?"

"Huh?"

"You have to be doing this for some girl who felt sorry for me somehow."

"God! You're more stubborn than me! I'm trying to help you!"

"I don't want your help, just leave." I closed my eyes and waited to hear his footsteps showing his exit. Instead I felt an arm being placed around me. I opened my eyes and looked up to see Puck grinning down at me. I knew I should have been disgusted and annoyed, but I actually felt warm and safe with his arm around me. I started to cry and he let me cry into his shoulder.

* * *

Puck and I didn't talk about what had happened in the bathroom, not that anything besides me crying on his shoulder had happened. Although something had changed about the way I looked at Puck. Before I had just seen him as this object of lust and sex, now he was also sensitive and almost sweet. My mind was filled with images of him looking down at me grinning. I wasn't able to focus on anything until I walked into the choir room for practice. I saw Finn leaning against the piano waiting for me. I looked around the room and noticed that Rachel was missing, along with the band and Brad.

"Umm, where is everyone?" He smiled.

"Rachel wanted to practice her number for glee in the auditorium. So it's just you and me."

"Oh, so what are we going to sing today?"

"I was actually hoping to go workout in the gym for a little while. Wanna come? It really helps get your mind off of things." He must have heard about me. But still...

"Sure." He looked really happy and showed me the way to the weighlifting room. He changed into his workout clothes and let me borrow an extra pair he had, they barely fit me but would do for now. He was very patient and showed me all the proper ways to get the most out of an exercise. He helped me benchpress, do crunches, sit-ups, everything. I was both tired and exhilarated by the end of it.

"Good job. You should workout more often, you have the right body frame to build some pretty good muscle." I blushed and nodded my head.

"Alright, let's hit the showers." My smile faded and I became paralyzed. He came up to me and shook me.

"Worried about the showers? Don't be. Don't worry I won't look." I half-smiled at this. I was more worried about how my body might react if I see him naked. I gulped and followed him to the showers. We got showers across from each other and I tried my hardest not to turn around. But while I was washing my back I dropped the soap and was forced to turn around to pick it up. I glanced over at Finn and he was turned towards me with his eyes closed. My eyes were the size of dinner plates, his body was beautiful, he had a smooth six pack with defined pecs and a erotic V on his pelvis leading the way to his crotch. Which of course leads me to what I saw next. He was uncut, soft, with trimmed pubes. My mouth was drooling enough to cover Finn with it. I had to shake my head of any thoughts like that and turned back away to hide the rather obvious problem the occured from those thoughts.

I finished before him and dressed and left the locker room quickly yelling back at Finn that I wanted to be early to glee. On my way to the choir room I had more time to reflect about what I had just seen. Once again my previous thoughts of someone were flipped around. I now saw Finn as a sexual object, sexy, kind, and cute. My brain was in complete turmoil with different thoughts and images of Puck and Finn whirling around. Which one would I choose? There's no way either of them are gay, so why was I even thinking about choosing? But what if they _were_ gay? No way! Puck got Quinn pregnant and Finn was crushing over Rachel, from what I heard. I was so deep in thought I didn't even realize it when I sat down in the choir room next to Rachel. She looked at me and noticed my gazed over look into nothing.

"Are you okay?" I shook my head to clear it.

"Yeah, been kind of a hard day."

"Nobody's around, do you want to talk about it?" In a way I did, and I also knew that I could somehow trust Rachel, even though I despised her yesterday.

"I guess I'll start from the beginning..." I told her everything that had happened that day, except for everything about Puck and Finn. She didn't say a word the whole time I talked, and luckily no one else showed up. When I finished she looked at me and took my left hand.

"Michael, I'm so sorry, I had no idea the kind of...crap you must go through. But there's nothing wrong with being hopeful, you can't go through life always expecting to be let down, you'll eventually crush yourself. You _will _get adopted someday, all those other families just weren't ready for you yet. And you'll always have us. Let me show you why I wasn't at practice today." With that she got up and walked to the door, she looked out the door and waved to someone. The entire glee club and band walked in and stood in front of me.

"What is this?" Rachel stepped up.

"Like I said, you have us, you're family." She got back in the group and Mercedes led the club in singing "We are Family". I looked at each and every face in the club as they sang, some were happy, some concerned, some soulful. I started crying during it and it ended with Mercedes pulling me up and hugging me, along with the rest of the club. Mr. Schuester walked out from behind the piano, clapping.

"Good job guys, with that kind of feeling and group effort we're a shoe-in for regionals."

"Sorry, buddy, it looks like you guys may not even be going to regionals at all." Sue Sylvester walked in from the door with a small book in her hand. She walked up to the group and threw the book behind her at Mr. Schue.

"Page 58, rule 24, states that all performers must be permanent students at the school the club is from." She walked straight up to me. "Which means either this kid's out, or you're all out." Mr. Schue stormed up to Sue.

"Sue, you can't do this!"

"On the contrary William, I can, and I will report all of you. Consider this giving the kid a second chance. If he starts his days at McKinley as a glee kid he'll never survive. I'm helping him by giving him the chance to be in other groups of weirdos and freaks, like the A/V club." I noticed Artie take obvious offense to her statement.

I myself was in shock. My mind couldn't even process all that was going on. Quinn grabbed my left arm while Mercedes kept hold of my right.

"Well then we'll just miss regionals, we're either going with Michael or without him." I jerked my arms from them and turned to the group.

"No. I can't let you guys give up all your hard work for me. I'm used to giving up families, I can give up one more." Before I could give Sue the benefit of seeing me cry I grabbed my things and dashed out of the school. I kept running until I almost passed out. I looked around and noticed that I was at a public park. I stumbled to a nearby tree with tears blurring my vision. I leaned against the tree and cried myself to sleep.


	6. Crushing

**Ok, sorry this took so long guys. School's a major bummer, and also sorry for how short it is. I promise to make the next chapter the longest yet. Read and Review! Also, I did a major goof. Sorry about the name thing.**

I awoke in the warm confines of my bed. I had no idea how I had gotten there, I just remembered how that...that...witch had forced me out of the glee club! I started to tremble and my eyes started to water again. I let the tears come. I turned over and cried into my pillow. It took all my willpower to not think of anything that had to do with glee. I tried to contain the amount of sound my sobbing caused, which made me start to hiccup. My hiccupping must have woken somebody up because I heard the door to my room open. I felt a hand gently land on my back and start to slowly massage my extremely tense muscles. Whoever it was really knew what they were doing and before I knew it I woke up again with more sun filtering in through the window. I looked around to find no sign of my masseuse.

I grabbed the clock and was surprised to find 12:00 glowing at me. I could have cared less about missing school, I was more surprised that I had actually slept for that long. I sat up in bed and rubbed my eyes to get the sleep out of them. Images of yesterday swam through my mid and I just sat there holding my head in my hands and started thinking back over what had happened. Puck, Finn,...glee club. I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts, I couldn't start thinking of that again.

Instead I got out of bed and got dressed in the most modest clothes Kurt had bought for me. A long sleeve v-neck and a regular pair of jeans. It was colder than usual so I also grabbed a jacket. I wasn't exactly sure of the parents schedules yet so I walked to the door quietly and made sure that it didn't make a sound as it closed. Outside I pulled the jacket close around me, shoved my hands in my pocket, and started walking. Of course I didn't no where I was going, I just needed to walk to let the cold air clean out my head and help me think clearly. My first problem, should I stay?

I thought over the week as a whole and how this place compared to all the other families and towns I had lived with. Compared to most of them this was the best town I had ever been in, and the family was definitely the nicest I had ever met. But things were already starting to get weird for me, my crushes (or should I say lusts?), Rachel, Mr. Schuester, and now being kicked out of the club. Maybe I should just leave before anything gets any worse, but isn't that what I had done for all my other families? Well most of them had kicked me out, but there were other towns like this with families like this one where I had just decided to leave. I had either created a weird situation with a family member, or with a kid at school, that was just so uncomfortable for me that I had to leave. But what if I had stayed? What if I had stayed and tried to work things through? Maybe I would already be adopted and living a normal teenage life, well, as normal as I could be. Maybe I should stay, stay and work things out, just take this one chance, what's the worst that could happen? I decided right then that I would stay... that is, if they let me.

Well, with that out of the way I could think about my next problem, well probl_ems_. Puck and Finn. What is it I'm feeling? From everything I had heard about Puck from everbody I had met he was an emotionless asshole; but I couldn't forget what had happened yesterday, he had been so caring and sweet, and he had felt so soft and he smelled so good. Forget shaking my head, I had to slap myself for that one. And what about Finn? He was the whole package guaranteed, sweet and gentle with an amazing body. But he was also straight, I even heard that he had feelings for Rachel. At this rate it looked like the only guy I would be able to get was Kurt, still not my type. I wanted both, but I knew I couldn't have either one. So what do I do? I could actually feel my heart straining from all the stress. Maybe before I decided which one I wanted, I should find out which one I could actually get. That's it! I needed someone sneaky, conniving, and knew where to get the dirt, Rachel! It will be perfect, and if he turned out to be straight Rachel can have him.

And my last problem, glee club. The closest thing to a family I'd ever had, but there wasn't really anything I could do, unless I got adopted. I could always support them when they went to regionals. I snapped out of the trance I had been in and looked around. I was in an okay looking neighborhood; nothing special just a bunch of houses, some pretty run down, that all looked the same. Nearby was a small park that had a kids playset and a few benches for the parents to sit on. I took one farthest away from the gate and just sat there trying not to think. I was jostled awake by someone, I must have dozed off.

'Hey, you okay? I noticed you weren't at school today." I looked up and looked into Finn's soft, brown eyes. I almost gasped, all of a sudden a thousand different images popped into my head, none of them kid appropriate. I didn't answer at first, my mouth was just gaping.

"Did you hear me? Hello?" He snapped his fingers in front of my face, I shook my head and quickly answered.

"Sorry I didn't expect to see you here."

"What happened? I know you weren't at school today. You had the whole club worried when you ran out yesterday."

"I know, Sue just pushed me over the top on a really emotional day." He looked at me with a friendly grin on his face.

"Wanna talk about it? I live right down the street."

"Sure." So we walked the short distance to his house and his mother met us with a big hug, kindness must run in the family. She left us alone after that mumbling about teenagers and their privacy. Finn led me to his room where he sat on his bed and I sat on a chair next to it. We sat there in an awkward silence for a while. I made the first move.

"You know I'm a foster kid, what you don't know is how many families I've been through. Mr. Schue and Ms. Pillsbury didn't know and that's what started the day. They thought they knew what I was going through, as if. I had been thinking about if I could ever have an actual family, one that wanted me to stay. I finally found that in glee, then Sue had to take it away. And above all of that I..." I stopped, I had almost told him about my major crush on him and Puck. If he knew about that, my life would definitely be over. But, would it be better if he knew? Even if he wasn't gay, he could still try and help me, maybe. He started to look concerned in my silence.

"Michael?" I flicked my hair to the side and looked Finn straight in the eyes.

"Finn, can you keep a secret?"

"Uh, what kind of secret?"

"Can you keep a secret?"

"Yes." I took a deep breath looked Finn in the eye, and realized I couldn't do this. I quickly stood up.

"I have to go." He stepped in front of the door and stared me down.

"Not until you tell me what you needed to tell me." I started to panic, I couldn't tell him, I shouldn't tell him, I have to tell him.

"Finn, I can't I really can't, it's just not the time. I'm sorry I even brought it up."

"Fine, I can wait." I put my head down and brushed past him. I quickly left and made my way back home. I knew I had made the right decision, neither of us were ready yet. But why did I still feel like crap? I felt like crying. This didn't make any sense! I was even more confused than ever now, maybe I _did_ need to get out of town. I don't know how much longer I can live like this. I walked through the door and almost didn't notice the entire Jones family, and Quinn, sitting in the living room.

"Hi everyone what's up?" Mrs. Jones gestured towards an empty armchair.

"Michael, please, take a seat."

"What's going on?" Mrs. Jones answered.

"Michael, after we found you in the park yesterday we decided to have a family talk about you staying here." My heart dropped, they were already kicking me out?

"We had originally decided that you would stay for only a few weeks. But after last night we decided that..." I could feel the tears start to well up already. Mercedes finished the sentence.

"You're going to stay the summer!" I let go of the breath I didn't know I was holding. Then joy took me over. I jumped up and gave every single one of them a big hug. Four months! That was the longer than any family had been willing to keep me before.

"Thank you all so much! I can't wait to tell Karen!"

"She called today and said she would take you to lunch tomorrow. And after that Mercedes, Quinn, and Kurt are going to go buy you some church clothes for Sunday." I stopped for a minute. I hadn't been to church since...well you know.

"Church?"

"Yes, you'll love it Michael. Just you wait." Mercedes and Quinn took me to my room. Quinn gave me a huge hug, almost crushing me.

"And after we get you some more clothes we find a way to get you back into glee club. Hopefully in time for regionals." I smiled. Mercedes joined in the hug.

"I really mean it when I say thank you guys. You don't know how much this means to me." Mercedes pulled out from the hug.

"You're welcome, now you better get some rest, you're shopping with Kurt tomorrow remember?" I smiled and changed as soon as they had left. I wrapped myself up and relaxed thinking about how drastically the day had changed. That morning I had woken up sad and confused, tonight I fell asleep happy, and even more confused.

**Hope you guys enjoyed that. If anyone has any suggestions I'm open to them. Please REVIEW!**


	7. Fixing

**Ok, again I'm really sorry. I was going through a crazy time. But I will hopefully finish this sometime this millennium. I got inspired to write again after the last review. So see? Your reviews do matter. Now do it! Read and Review.**

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Fixing

I sat across from Karen in the Cheesecake Factory of the Lima Mall and we were nearly bursting with excitement over the prolonged fostering and also the sugar from the piece of cake we had just shared.

"Oh, Michael, I'm so happy for you! How do you feel?"

"To be honest, I feel like running a marathon right now." We both laughed because we knew that I was one of the least athletic people I knew. Not saying that I was fat, I was skinny, I just didn't like running. We chatted about William McKinley and some of the friends I was making while the busboy cleaned our table. After he left Karen leaned in close to me with a broad grin on her face.

"Okay, spill, who's the guy?" I blushed; Karen could always tell when someone was crushing for someone.

"Actually it's two guys." Her face became brighter than the sun for that moment. She had to contain herself from squealing. Karen was part of a sorority in college who did things like that a lot. This was one of those times where she was letting her past show.

"Who, who, who?" I grinned in embarrassment.

"One's like the school bully and whore, and the other is the school's quarterback. They're both so cute, Karen, and they both have sweet sides. And if either is gay they haven't come out yet." She thought about it. I knew that I could trust whatever judgment she had.

"I'm not sure what to tell you. If neither of them is gay then you're out of luck. But if they both turn out to be gay then you have a difficult choice."

"Thanks for stating the obvious."

"I just don't want you to get hurt. I've got to go, and it looks like you do too." She nodded her head towards Mercedes, Quinn, and Kurt who were all waving at me from the windows. I smiled and waved back. Karen looked me in the eyes. "Be careful, and remember, I have my cell on me if you need me." I nodded. As we stood up we hugged before she went to the parking lot.

As soon as she was gone Kurt took me by the arm and led me straight towards the clothing department. The next few hours would be best described in a montage of me trying on different outfits and Simon, Paula, and Randy (a.k.a. Kurt, Quinn, and Mercedes) all either shaking their heads yes or no. We finally made it out with outfits that were both church appropriate and stylish.

We rode back home singing at the top of our lungs with Ke$ha and Lady Gaga, with Quinn giving her best Gaga imitation that kept me laughing all the way to the house. The girls helped me put my clothes away while they gossiped about different people at school. That night I went to sleep as happy as could be once again. But I reminded myself that it could always change in a minute.

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The next morning I was nearly shaking out of the suit that Kurt had bought for me. He also promised that if I stayed for prom that he would personally take my measurements for me, resulting in a particularly pink blush from me. Once again the girls were singing along with the radio. But this time I didn't join them as I thought back to the last church service I had ever attended.

It had been my parent's funeral. I remember clutching the hand of our next door neighbor who had babysat me whenever my parents had gone out. She and I comforted each other. Well, she was comforting me more than I was comforting her. Several times during the service she had had to hold me in her arms and rock me like my mom had done whenever I was sad. At the burial she held me back as I tried to jump into the grave after them. Then she waved goodbye as child services took me away.

"Michael? We're here. You okay?" Mercedes was leaning around her seat looking at me. I quickly wiped away a tear that was threatening to form in my left eye.

"Yeah, of course, I'm fine. You better turn back around before you rip that shiny little dress of yours." She smiled and got out of the car. Her dress caught the light and bounced it in several directions. It almost made me laugh how dressed up everyone was for church. I walked with Quinn and Mercedes to the church doors. I looked up at the stained glass and froze as flashes of my parent's funeral whipped through my mind. I shook the images out of my head and walked in with my head held high. I was determined to not let my past hold down my future.

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The service yesterday had been wonderful. Quinn had given a beautiful rendition of "Amazing Grace" that had sent shivers down my spine. It still gave me goose bumps just thinking about it. I was at my locker getting ready to go to practice with Rachel and Finn, and right on cue as soon as I shut my locker door there was Rachel's bright shining face. Well, maybe not bright and shining, more like dark and foreboding.

"Hi, Ra..."

"I can't believe she did that! Well, I can believe it because it's Sue Sylvester. Ugh, just saying her name feels disgusting. People like her are the reason why people like us are put on the lowest level of the social pyramid. They see the smallest bit of talent and opportunity and they have to smash it and make sure it doesn't grow. It just infuriates me!" I sighed. So, she was still on that.

"Look, Rachel. It's okay, we probably would have been found out anyway. It's not your fault that I'm not a permanent student." At this Rachel's face lit up.

"And that is where you are wrong. You see, after Mercedes announced to everyone that you would be staying until the end of summer in second period today, I decided to do some research, and that's when I found this." She pulled out a sheet of paper and held it out to me. I took it and started reading through it while we walked to the glee room and she continued talking.

"All it says is that if a student is attending a school from any period during the school year until the end of the school year then they are officially counted as a permanent student of that school for that school year." She stopped and turned to me. "This means you can be with us at Regionals." I didn't even bother reading the rest of the paper after she said those words. I threw my arms around her.

"Rachel, thank you so much. Not just for this, but for glee. You've given me something I never thought I would have again, a family." She smiled at me and looked at me with watery eyes. Then she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me back. We stayed like that without talking for several minutes until Finn came looking for us. When he found us he didn't say anything, he simply smiled his adorable little smile and walked away. We followed him to the glee room. I walked to the piano and stood across from Brad.

"So, what are we singing today?" Rachel passed me a sheet of music.

"I decided to go with something a little more upbeat today. How does "I Do" by Colbie Caillat sound?" I nearly jumped on top of the piano.

"I love that song!"

"Good, then you can sing it by yourself. This time make me really feel the lyrics you're singing." I froze.

"You want me to sing it by myself?" She waved off my fear as she sat down with Finn right next to her.

"You'll do fine." I gulped and nodded to the band. I tried to forget about Finn and Rachel and tried to let the lyrics and rhythm move me. As I sang I couldn't help but picture Puck and Finn and imagined that I was singing to them. Which I was, to one of them. When I finished Rachel and Finn both clapped. Rachel gave me her observations, mostly about how I wasn't feeling it enough. Finn simply said "Good job, man," and patted me on the back. We practiced the song again a few more times before the rest of the glee club came in.

Mr. Schue walked in and proceeded with the usual challenge of who wanted to perform today. Tina stood up and walked Artie to the front of the room.

"We decided to do a mash-up of our songs. Artie has trouble with musical numbers while I have problems with rapping. So we are doing a mash-up of "Music of the Night" from The Phantom of the Opera and "Right Now" by Akon." If you want me to describe what it was like, it was one of the strangest things I've ever heard. Tina's rapping wasn't that bad and Artie was able to hit the high notes without a problem, but the rhythms and melodies of the songs didn't seem to want to work together. It was almost like they wanted to work but it just didn't. We all clapped anyway, except for Rachel who claimed that it was an abomination to music.

After we practiced our numbers for Regionals I was astonished to find Puck standing in front of me while everyone was getting their stuff together.

"Hey, Michael, I was wondering if you would help me with some of the music at my house tonight, my mom won't mind and you can even stay the night if you want." I couldn't believe my ears. I was sure they were lying to me; there was no way in heaven _or_ hell that this idol of sex and power was asking me over to his house.

"Why me?"

"You're one of the best male singers, besides Artie but he has a date with Tina. Look, if you don't want to help me that's fine, you just seemed like the kind of guy that would be willing..."

"Of course I'll help!" I nearly yelled it at him. I immediately put my hand over my mouth and opened my eyes in horror as everyone turned to look at us. Puck simply laughed it off.

"Awesome, I'll see you around 8 then." I nodded silently. He walked away and Quinn walked up to me with a questioning look on her face.

"What was that about?"

"He just wants me to help him tonight with some of the music."

"Puck never asks for help with anything. He must want something. If he thinks that he's using you to get to this baby then he's got another thing coming. Come on, Michael, let's go home. You better tell Mercede's parents about helping Puck." My heart fell at those words. He was just using me to get to Quinn. Of course he wasn't gay, that's why Quinn was knocked up.

I told Mercede's parents about my possible sleepover and they seemed okay with it. They made sure I took a sleeping bag and an overnight bag with necessary toiletries inside. I thanked them and Mercedes when she dropped me off at Puck's house at 8 o'clock. I waved goodbye as she drove off, then took a deep breath to gather the courage to walk up to the house and knock on the door. When I knocked I braced myself for the sight of the hunk that I had been crushing on for the past week. As I stood at the door waiting I thought of all the possibilities that this night could end in. None of them came even close with what happened.

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**I know, I'm evil. I will try and not leave you in suspense for too long. But then again my school is starting again soon, so no promises will be made, sorry. Read and Review!**


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